Intentions to Marry, 1923 Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840514, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1923 is bound in eight volumes (a to h) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1923c contains pages 895-1334, covering districts from Rangiriri to Whangamomona

Page 1319

District of Waitara Quarter ending 31 March 1923 Registrar Y. W. Barnard

Date of Notice

Names and Surnames of Parties

BDM Match

Condition

Calling or Profession

Age

Dwelling Place

Length of Residence

Marriage Place

Folio

Consent

Date of Certificate

Officiating Minister

29 January 1923

Paul Gerhard Gaustad
Barbara Fenton Raven

Paul Gerhard Gaustad
Barbara Fenton Raven
💍 1923/2226

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

41
19

Urenui
Urenui

21 years
19 years

Church of England at Urenui

1819

Herbert Fenton Raven, Father

29 January 1923

Rev. G. H. Gavin, Church of England

No	1
Date of Notice	29 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Paul Gerhard Gaustad	Barbara Fenton Raven
	💍 1923/2226
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	41	19
Dwelling Place	Urenui	Urenui
Length of Residence	21 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Church of England at Urenui
Folio	1819
Consent	Herbert Fenton Raven, Father
Date of Certificate	29 January 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Gavin, Church of England

30 January 1923

Charles Thomas Cole
Constance Lilien Furze

Charles Thomas Cole
Constance Lilian Mollie Furze
💍 1923/2228

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

21
23

Waitara
Waitara

21 years
23 years

Office of the Registrar, Waitara

1820

30 January 1923

Y. W. Barnard, Registrar of Marriages

No	2
Date of Notice	30 January 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Thomas Cole	Constance Lilien Furze
BDM Match (86%)	Charles Thomas Cole	Constance Lilian Mollie Furze
	💍 1923/2228
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	21	23
Dwelling Place	Waitara	Waitara
Length of Residence	21 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar, Waitara
Folio	1820
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1923
Officiating Minister	Y. W. Barnard, Registrar of Marriages

7 February 1923

Ivan Newman Young
Ellen Garvey

Ivan Newman Young
Ellen Garvey
💍 1923/2229

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Housemaid

18
19

Waitara
Waitara

12 years
2 years

St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church at Waitara

1821

Arthur Newman Young (Father), Mary Garvey (Guardian)

7 February 1923

Rev. Richard Moran, Roman Catholic Church

No	3
Date of Notice	7 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ivan Newman Young	Ellen Garvey
	💍 1923/2229
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Housemaid
Age	18	19
Dwelling Place	Waitara	Waitara
Length of Residence	12 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church at Waitara
Folio	1821
Consent	Arthur Newman Young (Father), Mary Garvey (Guardian)
Date of Certificate	7 February 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. Richard Moran, Roman Catholic Church

14 February 1923

Clifford Hudson Tak
Grace Walker

Clifford Hudson Tate
Grace Walker
💍 1923/2230

Bachelor
Spinster

Town Clerk
School teacher

31
26

Waitara
Waitara

27 years
6 years

Church of England at Waitara

1822

14 February 1923

Rev. G. H. Gavin, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	14 February 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clifford Hudson Tak	Grace Walker
BDM Match (95%)	Clifford Hudson Tate	Grace Walker
	💍 1923/2230
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Town Clerk	School teacher
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Waitara	Waitara
Length of Residence	27 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Church of England at Waitara
Folio	1822
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. H. Gavin, Church of England

14 March 1923

Charles William Henwood
Myrtle Leah Howell

Charles William Henwood
Myrtle Leah Howell
💍 1923/2231

Bachelor
Spinster

Carrier

24
21

Urenui
Urenui

12 years

Methodist Church at Urenui

1823

16 March 1923

Rev. E. H. Kedgley, Methodist Church

No	5
Date of Notice	14 March 1923
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles William Henwood	Myrtle Leah Howell
	💍 1923/2231
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carrier
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Urenui	Urenui
Length of Residence	12 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church at Urenui
Folio	1823
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 March 1923
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. H. Kedgley, Methodist Church

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).